Collections in Photographs and Prints Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Marion and Clarissa Cumbo were a Black married couple based in New York City who worked as musicians and arts fundraisers. The collection, dated from the 1890s to the 1980s, contains photographs depicting the Cumbos' music careers, their work with Symphony of the New World and Triad Productions, and their families and friends. less

Bill Gunn (1934-1989) was a Black writer, actor, and director. The Bill Gunn photographs collection primarily contains pictures of his family, from the 1880s through 1989, as well as some photos related to his career. Bill Gunn's mother, Louise Gunn, compiled most of the photographs in the collection, which depict her career, friends, family, and community engagement. less

Melville J. Herskovits, anthropologist and Africanist, was the founder of the first African Studies Program in the United States established at Northwestern University in 1948. Frances S. Herskovits, who taught African Literature, was also a close collaborator of her husband's. She accompanied Melville on many of his field trips and obtained data on the women, art, and religion of various cultures. The Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits Photograph Collection consists of some personal photographs and documentation of Melville's professional activities. Documentation of Frances' anthropological career is combined with Melville's research. less

The Jean Blackwell Hutson photographs, dated 1890s to 1990s, were compiled by Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998), a librarian who served as curator of the Schomburg Collection from 1948 to 1972, then chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 1972 to 1980. The photographs document her family life, travels, and professional career. The collection holds mostly photographs and to a lesser extent some negatives, telegrams and notes. less

Lawrence Dunbar Reddick (March 3, 1910 – August 2, 1995) was a professor, historian, biographer of Martin Luther King, Jr., and former curator of the New York Public Library's Schomburg Collection. Reddick was a scholar in the field of African American Studies and collected materials related to the Black experience in the military, education, and professional environments. Reddick's collection contains photographs and negatives used in his research, as well as images illustrating his academic career, civil rights advocacy, and personal life. less

The Slavery collection, compiled by staff of the Schomburg Center, consists primarily of photomechanical reproductions of illustrations, paintings, photographs, documents, artifacts and printed texts, relating to the enslavement of persons of African descent in the United States from the early 1800s to the mid-1860s. less

The Organzations collection, assembled by staff of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, depicts primarly African American civic, social, fraternal, professional, civil rights, and other organizations, dating from the late 1890s to the mid-1980s. The collection contains photographic prints and photomechanical reproductions. less